14 December 2010

Remembering Our Troops and Veterans This Holiday Season--

Here are a couple poems remembering our veterans this holiday season. The first 2 are courtesy of Robert A. Hall, a veteran of the Marines and Massachusetts State Senate. You may visit his blog here.

A Veteran’s Christmas Wish

Each year when Christmas comes around again,

I pause on Christmas Eve to take a dram

Of whisky, and I think of absent friends,

And Christmas in a place called Vietnam.

I think of boys who never had the chance

To see their kids on Christmas Eve at play,

Their lives were spent that freedom might advance,

From Valley Forge right up through yesterday.

They fell at Belleau Wood and Normandy,

At Gettysburg, at Iwo and at Hue,

They gave their lives to keep our people free,

And never saw another Christmas Day.

So take a moment from your festive joys,

To think of soldiers who were young and true,

And say a prayer on Christmas Eve for boys

Who gave up all their Christmases for you.

Robert A. Hall

Former SSgt, USMC

Spell check notes: Scotch whisky has no “e.”

Hue (Vietnam) is pronounced “way.”

The Christmas Gift

There is a gift that comes

From those out on the lines,

It is not wrapped in bows,

But, oh, how bright it shines.

There is a Christmas gift,

A pearl beyond all price,

From those who ask for naught,

But make the sacrifice.

They risk their blood and bone

On endless weary tours,

For that is all that keeps

The evil from our shores.

You worship as you will,

You freely have your say,

And all that is a gift

From sentries far away.

There is a gift that comes

From troops who guard the line,

That lets us live in peace

And joy at Christmastime.

We say “Support the troops,”

But hardly pause to think

What honor really means,

Or how near looms the brink.

There is a Christmas gift

From those who hold the line,

And you and I, my friend,

Get nothing more sublime.

Robert A. Hall

Former SSgt, USMC

Here's another poem I found by another author:

A Soldier's Christmas Poem

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
my daughter beside me, angelic in rest.

Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree, I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.

My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep
in perfect contentment, or so it would seem.
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eye when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know,
Then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.

My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
and I crept to the door just to see who was near.
Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.

A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.

"What are you doing?" I asked without fear
"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"

For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts,
to the window that danced with a warm fire's light
then he sighed and he said "Its really all right,
I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night"

"Its my duty to stand at the front of the line,
that separates you from the darkest of times.
No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.

My Gramps died at 'Pearl on a day in December,"
then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers."
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of 'Nam
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.

I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red white and blue... an American flag.

"I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home,
I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat,
I can carry the weight of killing another
or lay down my life with my sisters and brothers
who stand at the front against any and all,
to insure for all time that this flag will not fall."

"So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."
"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?

It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son."

Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and never forget
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone.
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.

For when we come home, either standing or dead,
to know you remember we fought and we bled
is payment enough, and with that we will trust.
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us.

3 comments:

Thank You so much for posting this. I have a cousin in the Marines, and thank God he is stationed close enough that he can be home this year. I have many friends whose spouses are overseas this year. My hearts break for the families of the deployed, especially the children. I am so proud of our Men and Women in uniform and words cannot express how thankful I am to them. Because of them I am free to spend Christmas with my family. God Bless and Protect them all!